


Long Talks

by Higuchimon



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Diversity Writing Challenge, GX Non-Flash Bingo Challenge, Gen, Valentine's Day To White Day Advent Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 10:00:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3484052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higuchimon/pseuds/Higuchimon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With her two best friends sick, Asuka lends what aid she can, in many ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Talks

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
 **Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh GX  
 **Title:** Long Talks  
 **Friendship:** Asuka, Momoe,  & Junko  
 **Word Count:** 2,072|| **Status:** One-shot  
 **Genre:** Friendship, Hurt/Comfort **Rated:** G  
 **Challenge:** Written for the GX Non-Flash Bingo, prompt 034, hurt/comfort; Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section D, 35, write in the hurt/comfort genre; Written for the Valentine's to White Day Advent, day 5, write about a character who is sick  & review a fic on the front page.  
 **Summary:** With her two best friends sick, Asuka lends what aid she can, in many ways.

* * *

Asuka cracked the door open and peeked inside, trying to stay quiet. She had more experience than she would've liked with this, but at least that meant she _could_ stay quiet. 

Tucked into two of the cots, blankets wrapped around them, rested Momoe and Junko. Momoe coughed even as Asuka began to move into the infirmary, and Asuka froze where she was, not wanting to disturb her friend. Momoe sniffled a little, tucked herself more under the blanket, and didn't even open her eyes. 

Reassured by that, Asuka stepped into the room with the same care, still not wanting to disturb either of them. 

_I still can't believe this._ Most people didn't get sick around here. There were occasional backlashes from supernatural duels - she tried not to think about her brother for that - and the occasional injury from someone doing something stupid - again, her brother came to mind - but Junko and Momoe had both spent the last few days coughing, hacking, sneezing, and being all around miserable. 

She could only feel grateful that she hadn't caught it for herself. Though with all the time she spent around them, she wouldn't have been surprised if she did, sooner or later. 

With the ease of long experience, she moved around the infirmary, gathering the few items that she would need. She'd spent more than enough time here, getting shown how to use a lot of the tools by Ayukawa-sensei. More than once she'd considered taking up her after school education in the vein of duel related medicine. 

There was still time to make up her mind on that, she told herself, as she sorted through everything and set it out on a small rolling table. 

"Asuka-san?" Junko's voice drifted toward her, and Asuka turned just enough to catch the other's eye, smiling at her in her best reassuring manner. "What time is it?" 

"Afternoon. You've got another hour or so until dinner." Ayukawa-sensei made certain that these two got the food they needed, and Asuka usually ended up being the one who brought it to them. That was fine with her; it gave her time to spend with them. 

Junko shifted a little more, trying to sit up and eventually giving up, just looking at her friend. "You don't have to take care of us like this." 

"You're my friends." Asuka said it simply and calmly. "What else should I do?" As if Junko even needed to ask. 

The redhead only shook her head, stifling a sudden yawn. "I think I'm almost over this, really." She coughed and reached for the box of tissues near the bed. Asuka said nothing at all. The cough said it all for her. 

"Where's Ayukawa-sensei?" Junko asked once she'd cleared herself out as best she could. 

"Getting the showers ready for you two." Asuka checked over her preparations and nodded to herself. She couldn't dispense medicines of any kind, but she had them all sorted out so when the nurse got there, _she_ could do so. "She's also had Tome-san make some of her best soup for you." 

That got a cheerful noise not from Junko alone, but Momoe, peeking out of her cocoon of blankets with a hungry gleam to her eye. That was an improvement in Asuka's opinion; neither of them had wanted much to eat in the last couple of days. 

Ayukawa-sensei stepped briskly into the room then, taking in all of Asuka's preparations, and nodded in approval before moving over to pick up the bottles. No one could cure a cold, but these could at least make the two sufferers a little more comfortable, taming down the coughs and keeping their lungs mostly clear. 

"How much longer do you think it'll be?" Junko asked once she swallowed her dose of medicine. Her nose wrinkled up even as she did; Asuka knew full well why. She'd seldom had to deal with the medicine herself, but she knew what it tasted like. As soon as both of them had taken the medicine, Asuka had a glass of water ready for each to drain to the dregs, getting the taste of it out of their mouths. 

The nurse considered the question, tapping one finger in thought as the two finished their water. "It shouldn't be too much longer. Probably another day or two, especially if you two keep sleeping like you have." 

"That's not going to be a problem," Momoe murmured. "I still can't keep my eyes open that much." 

Ayukawa patted her on the shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry, I've seen this kind of thing many times. You'll be fine." 

With their medicine now taken, Ayukawa stepped out and returned pulling a wheeled table, on which three bowls of steaming soup rested. Asuka's stomach rumbled as soon as she saw it. She wasn't sick herself, but there was always something special about Tome-san's meals. 

Ayukawa left the three of them alone to eat in peace; there would be showers and clean gowns after this, and Asuka would stay as long as she could, or until her friends fell asleep. After the last few days, she knew they would fall asleep long before the end of allowable visiting. 

"Have we missed anything interesting, Asuka-san?" Momoe wanted to know, sipping her soup. 

Asuka considered telling her about the assignments piling up, but that wasn't very conductive to recovering from severe colds. They would find out soon enough, especially as she'd kept a careful record of all of them. They would need to make up duels and take tests. She hoped it wouldn't be enough to put them right back here. 

"Nothing very important." Nothing very important _had_ happened since that strange experience with the duel spirit Honest and the now destroyed as well as abandoned dorm. "Have you two thought about how to rebuild your decks?" All of their cards had been among those destroyed, which would not make making up their neglected assignments any easier. 

Momoe traced a small design on her blanket. "I've thought about a Harpy deck, actually. What we saw in that world..." 

Neither of them spoke of that very often, to the point Asuka at times forgot they'd even been there in the first place. She'd been so occupied at the time with trying to help keep everyone alive that they'd gone under her radar. 

It was just as well she hadn't let them know she planned to follow Juudai when he went out looking for Johan. They would've insisted on coming along. That world of darkness had been hard enough as it was. To have them there would've made it even worse for everyone. 

Junko tilted her head back, eyes closed, though she wasn't falling asleep just yet. "I've thought about an undead deck myself." She didn't look up at the noise that Momoe made, nor at the look Asuka shot toward her. Of all the types of new decks that she could've considered, that wasn't one Asuka had ever thought she'd hear about. 

"Why one of those?" Momoe asked, flipping herself over as quickly as she could to stare at their long-time friend. "Those ... duel zombies were _horrible_!" 

"That's why I want one." Junko lifted her head up now. "Because if there are going to be undead things around me, I want to know that I'm the one telling them what to do. I want to know that they're going to protect me, not try to eat me." 

Asuka felt a small smile tugging at her lips. "When you two are out of here, let's hit up Tome-san's card shop. I hear there are some interesting new cards in some of the new releases. Let's see what we can find." It had been a while since she'd bought new cards for herself. The thought of evolving her deck just a little more teased at her imagination. She didn't know what she could evolve it into, but she knew it needed to grow beyond what it was. 

Tension had reigned in Junko's shoulders and now it relaxed; Asuka wondered if she'd thought they'd get mad because of her new deck choice. It wasn't the _usual_ kind of deck seen around the Academy, but if that was what Junko wanted, then Asuka would do everything in power to see to it that she got it. 

_Come to think of it, didn't I get some undead monsters when I got those packs last time?_ That had been back at the beginning of the year, hadn't it? She'd likely thrown the ones she hadn't picked for her own deck into the box she kept all of her rejects in. She'd let them both look through it and see what they could find that spoke to them. 

Ayukawa came back in just then, pushing a wheelchair in front of her. Junko and Momoe groaned in near unison. This was an argument they'd had every time a trip to the showers came up and this looked as if it wouldn't be any different. 

"It's infirmary policy. If you're staying in here, then you're going to go to the showers in a wheelchair." Ayukawa-sensei didn't even give them the chance to argue this time. "You know that by now." 

Momoe and Junko glanced at one another. "Flip a coin to decide who goes first?" Junko said, leaning back on her pillows. Asuka had one out before Momoe even bothered to nod her head. 

Junko kept her head on her pillow, eyes closed but still not asleep, as Ayukawa wheeled Momoe out. Asuka stayed quiet, not wanting to distract her from her rest if she decided to get a little while she could. 

"Asuka-san," the redhead murmured, "are you ever going to tell us what really happened in that other world? The one you were all in for months?" 

Asuka knew that would get asked sooner or later. She'd seen the way Momoe and Junko both looked at her when they thought she wasn't paying attention. But now she just shook her head. 

"I can't say that much. Most of what happened involved Juudai. It's for him to say anything if he wants to." 

Junko looked at her, cracking one eye open just enough to do so. Thousands of questions reigned in her eyes, but Asuka kept her silence. Instead, she reached over to tuck one pillow that looked ready to fall back under Junko's head, and gave her the best kind of supportive smile that she could manage. 

Junko sighed a little and asked nothing more. Asuka leaned back in her chair and tried not to remember a world without a sun. They were home from that. Her friends needed her now, friends that she hadn't talked to in far too long. 

"Should I ask what you two did while I was gone?" She did her best to keep a teasing tone in her voice, though it wasn't one she was very good at. Fubuki did the jokes. She had other interests. 

Junko peeked out at her again and now she smiled, an expression far more natural to her than any other. "You probably shouldn't. We were very boring. All we did was go to class. And miss you." She fidgeted a little more, and her smile widened a touch more. "But we weren't the only ones who missed all of you. I heard that President Pegasus called at least once a week to see if anything had happened, and Manjoume-kun's brothers even _lived here_ for a while!" 

Asuka's eyes widened at that. He hadn't mentioned a word to her on _that_ point. Though perhaps he didn't know; she still wasn't certain of how matters lay between those three. "What else?" 

Junko sat up more and began to talk, not simple gossip, or at least not _just_ simple gossip, but filling Asuka in on the events that she'd missed, more so than she'd ever thought she could. When Momoe came back and Junko went off to take her shower, the other teenager picked up the tale, filling in gaps on matters that Junko hadn't known. 

For one of the first times since returning to this world, Asuka felt herself fit back into the place she'd made for herself, the place that had waited for her. It wasn't entirely a home, but it was a place that she felt comfortable, and she knew she'd be happy staying there for a while. 

At least until graduation. 

**The End**


End file.
